The pursuit of science, the study of the great works, the value of free inquiry, in short, the very idea of the living the life of the mind–yes, these formative and abiding principles of higher education in America had their first and firmest advocate, and their greatest embodiment, in a tall,...

Mr. Jefferson was not a man who could be regarded as an eminent conversationalist. He was rather reserved; and did not often enter into great questions—political or moral—in my presence.

At all times dignified, and by no means easy of approach to all, he was generally communicative to those on whom he could rely; and in his own house was occasionally free in his speech even to imprudence to those of whom he did not know enough to be satisfied that an improper use might not be...

I have a distinct recollection of Mr Jefferson’s appearance, when he called on my Mother, to pay his respects, & deliver, in person, the invitation to dine with him; and also of every incident that occurred at the dinner party, & especially of his grace & vivacity of manner. He...

When he first charted the ground on which we gather today, there was just a field of grass, a horizon limited only by the blue mountains beyond. But Jefferson surveyed a horizon that no one else could see. He saw the graceful dome of the Rotunda, the elegance of the Lawn and its pavilions. He saw...

“In every Pole there is Jefferson more than anyone else, a love of freedom, free expression—and having a house of one’s own,” he said with a laugh. He predicted all Poles will “pick up Monticello as a symbol of what is needed in Poland—a fruitful place, because it has the land—but also a place...

Americans understood these rights more than 200 years ago ... We are only now learning to believe that we are entitled to the same rights.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, it was a simple and important act of the human spirit. What gave meaning to that act, however, was the fact that the author backed it up with his life. It was not...

Gorbachev advisor Shakhnzarov ... keeps a copy of the Federalist Papers on his desk, and he says that both he and Gorbachev have read and admire Alexander Hamilton’s essay on the need for a federal taxation system ... But Russian republic Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev cites a different American...

Jefferson was a childhood hero of mine, not because of his science, but because he, more than anybody else, was responsible for the spread of democracy throughout the world. And the idea, breath-taking, radical, revolutionary at that time—and some places in the world, it still is today—is that...